cause i'm falling in love
by hieress
Summary: It's not that Katie Gardner intended for herself to fall in love with the boy. It's just that she's really clumsy.


It's not that Katie Gardner intended for her to fall for Travis Stoll. It's just that's she's very clumsy.

Not that it's all her fault - Travis Stoll didn't make it really easy.

He seemed to have upgraded or something because, _gods, _Katie's teenage hormones flare up when she sees him, sending thoughts to her that aren't quite hers but this is her brain so she's pretty sure it's hers. ("_Oooh, don't you just want to pin up that bod up against a wall and ravish him to the next century?_")

It started the right after the war with the Titans.

Of course, she knew war changes _everything _but she didn't expect Travis Stoll being whisked away with it, too. He'd always seems like the guy who would still laugh and joke no matter how down he is - and Travis _was. _She'd seen this many times.

So what was different this time round?

He seems quiet nowadays. Well, when he was _around her. _He still joked and pranked with his siblings and the whole camp was divided to two for him - those who finds him amusing and those who absolutely _loathe_ him (Katie herself was in this half). But Katie doesn't recall a joke about her or said to her face or a prank involving her or her whole cabin since the last one when a sibling of Katie's won their Capture the Flag which involved toilet bowls and exploding ketchup. (That night lots of campers were in the infirmary, complaining that their butts were bleeding.)

At first, Katie didn't notice this, then she became grateful, then she wonders why. She shrugs it off at first but later on she finds herself wondering more and more. One time she was so distracted she almost sent an arrow to Chiron's horse butt one day during archery.

These thoughts were innocent enough - _why? why? why? why why why? _- until one day the boy in question gets in Katie's line of vision during her brooding moments and The Thoughts go to another direction. She began to wonder if he does his hair in the mirror everyday or if it's just messy like that and she noticed that stand of hair that covered half his left eyebrow and that his eyelashes almost reaches his cheek when he closes his eyes and that his eyebrows are too messy and that his nose is crooked and his smiles are always on the left side. That doesn't stop at that. His arms are defined, she noticed. He's lean and isn't too muscular and he had a nice, firm b- _ugh._

And so Katie became even more frustrated.

And Travis ignored her more.

And she kept _noticing _him.

And with it the more he seems to forget her.

* * *

It's not like she even cared how nice his buttocks looked before or anything like that.

It's because maybe thoughts about him before were mainly on creative murders and spitting saliva to his face.

Katie Gardner would prefer those, really. Her thoughts have lately been... wild. Often when she's at bed late at night she would unconsciously start imagining things (on a kitchen counter, in the camp's cr, in her_ bed_) and those things in the novels (maybe she'd want to ruffle his hair when his skin is covering hers and maybe he'd like to lick and kiss and suck at her neck- _gah_) and hearing things (how she would've moaned _Travis _to his ear when she'd be close enough and how he'd groan or maybe shush her when she'd get too loud and - let's stop it right there, shall we?).

* * *

Katie Gardner couldn't take it anymore.

Who the Hades was he? Ignoring her like that and chatting up other girls?

The _asshole._

Katie growled as she prowled her way to the Hermes cabin. She felt quite animalistic, yes because she is _so _going to tear that boy down to tiny little pieces like paper sheets and then she's going to put Nutella in-between and _eat him._

A kid yelped as he tried to make way for Katie. Everyone else followed to part for her. Oh, yes. They'd know an angry Demeter kid when they see one.

She was panting when she reached the cabin. She put a finger on the door and pushed. The door moved to open squeakily slowly. (She quite liked this effect.)

When she was in full view of the cabin, she realized everyone was frozen in their position, staring at her in silence.

A stand of hair fell between her eyes. "_Where _is Travis Stoll?"

Silence.

She scanned the room with a scowl searching for the face that always seemed to ruin her dreams and make her nightmares somewhat better - _aha!_

That aha there was Katie Gardner finally meeting Travis Stoll's face, which was surprisingly longer than usual as she usually notices him the first moment they are together in a room.

"Oh, hello, Katie." He squeaked when she made a move towards him.

"_You asshole._" She said when she reached his bunk. "_Now _you talk to me? What do you think you're playing at here?"

"That's just rude. And what are you talking about?" He stood up and crossed his arms.

He was tall. Quite tall. Actually, too tall that Katie had to deepen her scowl to match for the "intimidating."

"Don't talk about _rude _to me! You're the one who ignored me for _three _whole months!"

Someone behind Travis coughed. "Dear Katie, it's because-" Connor stopped short as both Travis and Katie both glared at him. "We're just... going to leave you kids, okay?"

After Connor ushered everyone out the door, he turned to them and said with a wink, "Just call if you need _protection_ from - or with - this raging woman, Travis. If you know what I mean." And turned to leave.

Katie turned to face Travis with her hands on her hips. "_Well?_"

"Look, Katie. I don't know what you're talking about, okay?" He put his hands up, "_So..._" He indicated to the door.

"_Excuse me_?" Katie demanded. "You're just going to make me go? You talk to me for the first time in three months and you're going to make me leave? _That's it? Gods, _Travis do you know how long I've tried to gather up the courage to go here and actually talk to you? Every goddamned night I've been thinking what to say and you want me to_ leave_?"

"What?" He had a shit eating grin on his face and Katie would've wanted to just take it off but it's the first one sent on her direction since forever and she _misses it. _"Katie-"

"No!" She knows she's embarrassing herself but she can't help it and she just needs to get it all off her chest. "What the fuck do you think are you doing? You can't just suddenly forget me like that! It's like you forgot I exist! I'm _here! _You know me, don't you? Surely you're not secretly hosting some sort of Titan in your body that will want to kill _me, _too? It's hurts, okay! I don't like being ignored so don't you dare pull that card on me. We've been through a lot together and suddenly it's like all that had been wiped out from your memory. And it fucking _hurts._" She's embarrassing herself. What is she even _doing?_

"Do you remember that time you helped me get back to the Aphrodite cabin with the golden mango? And how you said that it was okay you wore pink? And..." She began listing every nice thing he did for her and things she did for him (both list not that long, too, mind you) and somewhere in the middle of her talk her vision blurred and tears were on her cheeks and her fists were clenched on her side and Travis was standing closer to her and he looked awkward, like he doesn't know what to do.

"Hey, um...it's okay." He was patted her head once and then moved to pat her shoulder when he realized this wasn't his one of his crying sisters. It's Katie. Katie Gardner. _Oh, Hades._ "Holy Zeus, Katie. I'm sorry. _Gods, _I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to- ugh I'm sorry."

Katie sat down on the bed opposite Travis' which had a Spiderman sheet, she noted and proceeded to glare at the boy in from of her through her tears. "Go fuck your apologies."

Wow, she curses a lot.

"Wow, you curse a lot." Travis muttered. He kneeled in front of her. "Hey. I'm sorry, okay? I don't know why I did that- well, I do, really. Connor, he said- he said it will _hurt _me. I mean, I won't know anything about this hurting stuff, of course, but _he _does. You know Samantha? One of Apollo's kids? She and Connor had this thing and... well, after the war, he couldn't find her and _gods, _Connor really fucked up for the longest time after that. I haven't seen him that bad since the time I accidentally killed his gerbil - I mean, how was I supposed to know they can choke on coins? Anyway, one day he pulled me up and said to me- well, we'll just summarize it because boy, did he say a lot of nasty words- he said that I should never trust girls, they'll hurt you and all that and I thought of you and started devising my own plan."

Silence.

"_You idiot. _Why on Demeter's name would you even listen to Connor? Do you know how _stupid _he is? _Huh? _And why _me? _I will never hurt y- oh forget that. Because you know what? I will fucking hurt you. I will grind you in a meat grinder and mix you with a jar of Nutella and _eat you. _You hear that? I will _eat _you, you moron!" Wow. She really is getting better with this creative murders stuff.

"Katie! Don't you get it?" He put his hands on her shoulders and shook it, just for effect. "I mean, Connor is pretty stupid, but between the two of us, he's the smarter. But I'm the good-looking one and why would I need intelligence with a face like this? Anyway. I like you, stupid. Not like, the dumb friendship-like but the like-like thing. Okay?"

"Oh, I am so _going to eat you._"

"_What? _There, you see? You go around making us boys like you girls and when we pluck up the gods darned courage to tell you that we love you, you girls go around and stomp our little hearts. And you blame _us. _Honestly." He sniffed. "_Women._"

"What did you say? Were you plucking up the courage to tell me you lo-"

"Well I was! But look where the damn courage is! Broken to tiny little pieces to the floor, invisible to you. Rejection can do that, you know."

"What? Who said anything about rejection?"

"_You!_"

"You stupid! I never said anything about that. Okay?" A huff. "I hate you."

"I thought you said no rejection!"

"I meant like, hate in the crazy way I do. I hate you because you make me think weird thoughts that are really rated PG and I hate you because you won't make me sleep. I think it's called love in normal people speak."

"What? You are so confusing. Can you just... wait. _What rated PG _tho-"

Katie Gardner thought the right way to just clear herself (and to distract him for asking her about the thoughts) was to kiss the boy.

* * *

"Alright, you guys, pay up." Connor held up his hand and collected the money from the grumbling demigods.

* * *

**A/N: Well. Finished this at 2:51 in the morning. This took me forever. ugh. Hope y'all like it.**

**(And you know what _I'd _like? Your reviews)**

**Disclaimer: Well. I'm too sleepy for witty copyrights. Percy Jackson (sadly) belongs to Rick Riordan.**


End file.
